Signs of Autumn

I asked a group of first graders this afternoon if they knew what tomorrow was. One little one piped up and announced, "Tomorrow is the first day of Fall". I was elated and surprised that someone this young understood. Usually when I ask that question I get answers ranging from "Friday?" (when the next day is Tuesday), to "my birthday", to "Christmas, Missy?" or "snow". There are a number of time and space concepts that elude a large group of my ESOL students annually. Days, weeks and months are all thrown together into a vague jumbled time warp. The same thing happens with cities, states and countries. There is no clear understanding of the difference between state and city. You can forget about the refinement needed to distinguish between country and county!! The only thing that wedges tightly in the brains of my little ones when it comes to Fall is...you guessed it...Halloween! Sure enough, as soon as this little girl announced that tomorrow was the first day of Fall, she added quickly that Halloween was almost here and she already had her costume...a ballerina dress! I asked her if she had gone shopping over the weekend. She looked at me blankly and then asked, "You mean the day over there and the other day over there?"...waving with her hand pointing backwards to indicate the weekend. Then she said, "No, my Mom bought that the other days over there", pointing wildly again. I did some quick calculations and said, "You still have 41 days until Halloween". A teacher observing in our room laughed at me and said, "Boy you are on top of that date". I have to be because of the obsession my students have about Halloween. They are counting down the days with anticipation. We ended the class by waving goodbye to the last day of summer and welcoming in the first day of Fall. If too much Halloween candy is the only bad thing that happens to my students this year, we shall all be blessed!